so the smoke detector was installed on Thursday afternoon… and I am loving it… a cute little ring of blue (a nightlight) appears when I walk under it… so far no alarms, which is good, nor has it talked to me yet…

on Friday my son-in-law went out and found the Nest thermostat at a good price and on Saturday he began the process of installing it…

it was a long complicated piece of business… by 7 pm that night, it was 63 degrees Fahrenheit in the house because after the first install, and putting back the original thermostat, the furnace refused to circulate any heat… the furnace service people came out around 8 pm and discovered that a fuse had blown, so they went back to the shop and brought a new one and installed it… this particular fellow didn’t know how to install the Nest product so we left it so that the house could warm up… it was rather chilly…

on Tuesday my son-in-law tried again, after he had gone out and bought more fuses, in case we blew another one in the process of hooking up the new thermostat…

once again, the new one wouldn’t work so he reinstalled the old one… he walked over to the furnace company’s office and left a message for the owner to give us a call… a while later we heard back and they figured out that there needed to be another wire…

which meant that the drywall ceiling in the basement hall had to come down so he could run the cable… he removed it and cleaned everything up beautifully, but by then it was too late to move to the next step…

today, while I was at work, he was able to pull the wire (without cutting into the plaster in the hall, yay), connect everything, and set the temperature, because it finally worked perfectly…

we added it to my app and I can now change the temperature from my phone… although it does say it is -8 outside, whereas the weather app says it is -22, lol…

seemed like such a simple little job, but he didn’t stop until it was done;-)… I sure am blessed…

bit of an odd day… woke up at 6:15, made a thermos of tea and went back to bed… it had snowed a bit in the night…

at 7:30 the power went off and didn’t come back on for two hours… happy to have the warm tea as the temperature in the house dropped to 69 Celcius…

it is always so quiet when the power is off… and with the fresh blanket of snow it felt very cozy… particularly because I didn’t have to go out…

once the power was back on I spent some time working on a project and later met up with my daughter and eldest grandson at the mall… oh my… what was I thinking…

cars and people everywhere… good news is that I now have just about everything I need…

stopped to pick up A & W teen burgers, onion ringsand fries and then home… teen burgers from A & W were a treat we would sometimes have on our way home from work… nice to enjoy them with my grandson who is spending the night and helping me with some chores around the house tomorrow…

a few days ago I walked over to TheForks to meet a dear friend for lunch…

on my way I got this shot of the CanadianMuseum for Human Rights… it is such a beautiful building… just yesterday I renewed my membership…

it was a lovely day but a bit cold… I was wearing these amazing purple leather gloves which a friend gave me a few years ago… they look great but are not tremendously warm… so eventually I pulled the sleeves down over my fingers to keep them toasty…

another overcast and rainy day… but, I decided to go for a walk anyway…

made it to the Park and part way around the Gardens before the rain began…

took at least six pictures, from various locations, of this tree in bloom… just stunning…

this shot has tulips and lilacs… the pond on the right is now filled with water and the fountains are running… excited for the water lilies to be added in…

this year the tulips are red and white, I’m thinking a nod to Canada 150… usually they are multi-coloured…

had to open the zoom and dry the camera when I got home to be sure it wasn’t damaged by the rain…

had some tea to warm my hands which felt frozen by the time I got home…

went to Save-On-Foods and did a grocery shop… been enjoying shopping there… they have the very best coconut Greek yogurt… with a low sugar content… they also carry the Pro Activ margarine that can be difficult to find… was nearly blown away trying to get to the car with the bags…

got home, put away the groceries and had a nap…

focused on seafood for the week’s meals…

made jumbo prawns with rice, fresh asparagus and green onion for dinner…